Riverside County and five of its cities are trying to get extra money from the federal government that will help pay for affordable housing.
Temecula, Palm Springs, Lake Elsinore, Indio and Palm Desert and the county’s Economic Development Agency are trying to get an additional $1 million from the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, according to a report in The Press-Enterprise.
The agency usually gets about $1.6 million a year from the partnerships program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development.
Typically, money from the program is spent in three areas: for home repair, for first time buyers who need help getting a loan and on non-profit groups that build affordable housing, according to the report.
If the extra money is obtained, about half of the $2.6 fund will he spent on the first-time buyer program. The federal partnerships program is scheduled to start at the beginning of the 2015-16 fiscal year and run for the next three fiscal years, according to the report.